One of the greatest episodes ever!

One of the darkest, best written, and funniest episodes of any show ever. Goodbyee was a perfect example of a British Comedy tackling both humour and very serious moments at the same time. As we see Blackadder and the rest of the squad head up for "the big push", we realise that this is more than a Comedy show, it's reality of what happened back in the First World War. As our heroes go over the top, firing happens and certain death is for sure, but just as it ends we see a field of poppies, realising what the soldiers did for us and our freedom.Goodbyeee not only relies on a powerful ending, but the episode is quite possibly the funniest of all the Blackadders. Blackadder pretending to be mad was awesome, and Baldrick singing the "Boom! Boom! Boom" song was fantastic, as well as the Hot Mud drink being milked by Spit. As the episode goes on though, the tone gets darker and less funny as expected, due to us viewers knowing how it's all going to end, but it's done so brilliantly. By far the best episode of this series!moreless

Better than any textbook

The final episode of this show pays homage to the sacrifices made by the soldiers during the bloodbath that was World War I.

Tony Robinson turns Baldrick into a memorable character with a stunnig performance in this episode

Baldrick: (about the war) I heard it started when some guy called Archey duke shot an ostrich cause he was hungry.

And his war poem

'Boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom, boom'Famous stuffBlackadder fears death more than anything and does everything to get our the war, however all his efforts fail. 'Who would notice another mad man around here' Powerful line. Jutxtaposed by Melchett's line about Blackadder'Why he's as sane as I am,, bahhh!!' I love MelchettThe final minute is one of the most poignant moments from one of the most silly and emotionally void shows off all time. I couldn't believe the way it ended, it was heartfelt but painful.A better representation of the war than any text book or documentary could ever createmoreless

Heart-breaking

This is the end of it all. The big push has finally come and the battle is to be held at dawn. The characters recall the beginning of the war, how they joined the army and how all their friends have died.

What I love about this episode is that it handles the subject delicately. The beginning contains funny one-liners and silly acts, but as we approach towards the end, the laughter fizzles out and the ending is superb and spot-on. One has to mention the character development, especially in the case of Darling: I believe everyone was moved by his actions and words. Blackadder has always been against the war, but Baldrick and George also change their attitudes: they start out as eager soldiers but as the time comes, they are afraid of death.This episode is a remarkable moment in TV history: it shows us the pointlessness of the war more clearly than any history teacher or any book could.moreless

A memorial to those lost

To see a programme which takes a subject,which should be handeled with lots of caution, make such an episode including comical jokes, is just amazing.

As an avid Blackadder fan since childhood, this by far is the best.

The ending was so emotional, a real tear jearker, a episode which minutes before the end you gain a lump in your throat because you know what is going to happen.However, hardly anybody expected the ground which all the characters dead bodies were, to suddenly turn into a field full of red poppies spread across into the distance.Overall - This is a fantastic episode, it would be very difficult to compete for such a honorable episode.moreless

some of the best quotes and the best scenes in british comedy. Includes a big tear jerker at the end.

So this is it. The final PROPER blackadder episode. the british army has advanced no further than an asmatic ant with heavy shopping and Melchard has ordered Edmunds men over the top. But Blackadder will not go without a final attempt to leave the frontlines. The major plan includes a pair of pants and two pencils and the word "wooble" the best blackadder episode of the lot with a very serious and powerfull ending fading to a field of poppys. I genuinly cried first time I saw that sequence.moreless

Field Marshal Haig

Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (3)

Blackadder can't die without an heir, else how would one manage to go on an adventure through time in "Back & Forth".

The show never explicitly shows an heir, but it is always plausible. In this series he has sex with the nurse in the hospital, who is later shot due to her being a German spy. Even if George was a leak, she failed the subtle traps Blackadder left for her, and would still be tried and executed.

There is another interesting timeline error in this episode featuring Captain Blackadder's military career. As pointed out below, he mentions Umboto Gorge (1892) and knowing having met Field Marshal Haig twenty years ago (which would be 1897). When talking about his career to George he says that had "fifteen years military service" before the horror of World War I. Assuming he meant the start of the war in 1914, that would mean his career started in 1899.

Captain Blackadder says he only met Field Marshall Haig once. "It was twenty years ago." When he calls Haig, he talks about the Battle of Umboto Gorge in 1892. That would make it Blackadder and Haig's first conversation in 25 years, since all episodes of Blackadder Goes Forth were set in 1917.

Baldrick: I heard that [the war] started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry.Edmund: I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.Baldrick: No, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.

George: The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.Edmund: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved from blame on the imperialistic front..George: Oh, oh no, sir, absolutely not. (to Baldrick) Mad as a bicycle.

Baldrick: Well, the thing is, the way I see it, these days there's a war on, right? And ages ago there wasn't a war on, right? So there must have been a moment when there not being a war on went away, right? And there being a war on came along. So, what I want to know is, how did we get from the one case of affairs to the other case of affairs.{pause}Edmund: Do you mean, how did the war start?Baldrick: {thinks hard} Yeah.

Baldrick: Shall I do another [poem], sir?Blackadder: No, we wouldn't want to exhaust you.Baldrick: No, don't worry. I could go on all night.Blackadder: Not with a bayonet through your neck you couldn't!!

George: You know, I won't half miss you chaps after the war.Baldrick: Don't worry, Lieutenant; I'll come visit you.George: Will you really? Oh bravo! Yes, jump into the old jalopy and come down and stay in the country, and we can relive the old times.Blackadder: What, dig a hole in the garden, fill it with water, and get your gamekeeper to shoot at us all day?

Blackadder: Well, I'm afraid it'll have to wait. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was better than my plan to get out of this by pretending to be mad. I mean, who would have noticed another madman round here?

Blackadder: Well, George, I strongly suspect that your long wait for certain death is nearly at an end. Surely you must've noticed something in the air.George: Yes, of course, but I thought it was Private Baldrick.

Blackadder: Now ask me some simple questions.Baldrick: What is your name?Blackadder: Woobble.Baldrick: What is two plus two?Blackadder: Oh; woobble woobble.Baldrick: Where do you live?Blackadder: London.Baldrick: (looks confused) Eh?Blackadder: A small villageon Mars, just outside the capitol city of...Woobble.

Blackadder: And Bumfluff himself?George: Copped a packet in Gallipolli with the Aussies. So did Drippy and Strangely Brown. I remember we heard on the first morning of the Sommes, when Titch and Mr. Ploppy got gassed back to Blighty.Blackadder: Which leaves?George: Gosh, yes. I, I suppose I'm the only one of the Trinity Tiddlers left alive. Blimey there's a thought and not a jolly one.

Blackadder: Oh, for God's sake George! How long have you been in the army?George: Me? I joined up straightaway. August 4, 1914; what a day that was. Myself and the rest of the fellows leap-frogged down to the Cambridge recruiting office and then playing tiddly-winks in the queue. We'd hammered Oxford's tiddly-winkers only the week before and there we were: off to hammer the Bosh! Crashingly superb bunch of blokes. Fine, clean-limbed; even our acne had a strange nobility about it.Blackadder: Yes. And how are all the boys now?George: Well, Jocko and The Badger bought it at the first Ypres unfortunately. What a shock that.

Blackadder: Baldrick, fix us some coffee will you? And try to make it taste slightly less like mud this time.Baldrick: It's not easy, I'm afraid, Captain.Blackadder: Why is this?Baldrick: It is mud. We ran out of coffee thirteen months ago.Blackadder: So everytime I've drunk your coffee since, I have, in fact, been drinking hot mud.Baldrick: With sugar.Blackadder: Which, of course, makes all the difference.Baldrick: Why, it would do, if we had any sugar, but unfortunately, we ran out New Year's Eve, 1915. Since then, I've been using sugar substitute.Blackadder: Which is?Baldrick: Dandruff. Blackadder: (disgusted and disheartened) Brilliant.Baldrick: Still, I could add some milk this time. (leans in) Well, saliva.Blackadder: No! No thank you, Baldrick; call me Mr. Picky, but I'll pass.Baldrick: That's probably 'cause you're mad!

Melchett: I'll just going to have to sit this one out on the touchline with the half-time oranges and the fat wheezy boys with a note from matron, while you young bloods link arms and go together for the glorious final scrum down.

Blackadder: The real reason for the whole thing was that it was just too much effort not to have a war.George: By gum, this is interesting. I always loved history. The Battle of Hastings. Henry VIII and his six knives, all that.Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocks developed: us, the French and Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.Baldrick: But this is sort of a war, isn't it, sir?Blackadder: Yes, that's right. You see, there was only one tiny flaw in the plan.George: What was that, sir?Blackadder: It was bollocks.

(While talking about what they've done since the war started.)Baldrick: Remember the football match?Blackadder: Remember it, how could I forget it? I was NEVER off-side I could not believe that decision.

Originally the end slow-motion scene was to be played at a normal pace and would have the actors charge right up to the camera after coming out of the trench, and then suddenly they would all fall on their backs after all being gunned down by machine gun fire. The producers did not like the scene when it was shot and decided to play the scene in slow-motion and then, after the actors came out of the trench the scene would change to the poppy field. None of the cast knew of this change until it was first broadcast.

ALLUSIONS (3)

Two of George's classmates are lost to poison gas at the Battle of the Somme, which took place over weeks during 1916. It involved an incredibly huge British artillery bombardment, meant to obliterate the German defenses, which was to be followed by a huge infantry attack. The bombardment was ineffective as the Germans were dug in too deep or beyond the range of the British guns. George's chums were "Titch" and 'Mr. Floppy" who were "gassed back to Blighty (Britain).

George also lost his classmates "Bumfluff," "Drippy," and "Strangly Brown,"at the Battle of Gallipoli (1915), which was part of an allied effort to force open the Dardenelles strait in order to re-supply Russia from the south and take Turkey out of the war. Most of the fighting was done by Australian troops, as evidenced by his line "Copped a packet at Gallipoli with the Aussies."

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